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Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Woodguy, I apologize if I came off as flippant or as a smart butt. I get your initial response all to frequently and can get easily offended by some of the comments I hear. Especially considering there is an active industry disseminating lies, half truths and general BS about traps and trapping in general with nothing more or less than the stated goal of abolishing all forms of wildlife management to include all forms of hunting and fishing.
Being on the front line as it is I am constantly on guard for that sort of thing and have a hair trigger, forgive me. I assume by your original post that you are a participant of or are supporting of bow hunting, if so you know exactly where I am coming from as that sport has drawn fire from the very same type of people.
Yes trapping is modern and there are alot of misconceptions about the tools and people who trap. I myself am not a sport or fur trapper but strictly a NWCO, the modern incarnation of Animal Damge Control. Since we work directly with the public and are constantly under scrutinty from all sides the very last thing we would desire is for our equipment to cause such harm that it turns the public against wildlife control. Traps are restraint devices and nothing more.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

[QUOTE=warrior;613888]Woodguy, I apologize if I came off as flippant or as a smart butt. I get your initial response all to frequently and can get easily offended by some of the comments I hear.

Being on the front line as it is I am constantly on guard for that sort of thing and have a hair trigger, forgive me. I assume by your original post that you are a participant of or are supporting of bow hunting, if so you know exactly where I am coming from as that sport has drawn fire from the very same type of people.QUOTE]

No worries Warrior- I understand completely. Apology accepted and thank you for educating me.

I based my post on info I read many years ago in the early seventies a book by Cleveland Armory (sp?) left it's mark on me for sure. Obviously times and methods have changed for the better.

In this day an age wildlife management, as well as forest management cannot be left to mother nature. On both fronts, there are folks with knee jerk reactions that probably do more harm then good.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

I've done some preliminary research into firearms for shooting coyotes for my type of work. The ideal rifle would be of sufficient caliber and velocity to cleanly drop them in their tracks with very little risk of over penetration and or richochet. Of the various mainline varmit calibers .17 to .223 the .17s (.17 Remington .17 Fireball and .17 HMR) look to be the best choice taking the lack of over penetration/richochet into account. The projectile just has so much less mass/momentum than the various .22 centerfires. The HMR being a rimfire is a 200yd and under round.
I also looked at supressing these rounds and since all are super sonic they can not be totally suppressed. A properly designed supressor will eliminate the muzzle blast but can not eliminate the "crack" or sonic boom of the super sonic projectile. Due to the fact that to be effectively supressed a round must be subsonic that leaves nothing available in the "standard" varmit caliber range to work with as any of these traveling below the speed of sound lacks the lethality required. Only one round comes to mind that is subsonic and has the lethality and that is the .300 Whisper/.300 ACC Blackout. The downside is that to be subsonic it uses a heavyweight projectile 200gr-220gr and the over penetration/richochet problem crops up.
The other option is to forget about a rifle and go to the scattergun using a metrogun barrel extension and the specialty (subsonic) loads for that application.
Still contemplating (truth be told wishing for a new toy ) but unfortunately my area of operation would not allow the use of firearms to snipe them.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

I love my Henry Varmint Express .17 HMR. No recoil. You can still see the target through the scope after pulling the trigger. It has paid for itself already, IMO. Only down side is the ammo is a little pricey compared to a .22 LR.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Actually it would suprise you that it is not, at least to me and all of my scatterguns wear 26" tubes or shorter. Now I don't want to tote that thing in the turkeys woods or chasing timberdoodles but all in all the 1100s and benellis I've handled mount and swing like a gun shotgun should, if anything it tends to smooth out my already jerky swing.
For canines though it would more akin to turkey hunting where you call them to the gun and you shoot as if it were a rifle. Some of the guys that have used them on goose and pigeon control swear by it for pass shooting.

BTW, it is not classified as a suppressor by the ATF so it is a perfectly legal tool in all states for sport hunting and I have heard of it being used by some in suburban areas to be "neighbor friendly".

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Folks, a reminder to be careful of firearms. Firearms have been part of my upbringing. I love guns! But today something happened that will make me more careful. We got a phone call a few minutes before church saying a friend of ours had a gun shot wound. Apparently He was cleaning a gun and it was loaded. He died soon afterwards. He was in his early 20s. Do be careful!

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Absolutely! A firearm is a power tool and will kill if misused. Kingfisher, my sympathies go out to you and yours. I've been there, my brother picked up a couple pieces of 00 buckshot in a hunting accident (accident hell it was his fault and I don't believe in accidents) fortunately he was only "winged" with one pellet passing through the calf and one lodged in his foot but nonetheless a very sobering reminder of the requirement for safe gun handling.
BTW, I was using a chainsaw this weekend and everyone knows to be safe with such a tool. Firearms should recieve the same if not more consideration of safety. We all to often discount the tools we are brought up with and get lax.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Ruger 10/22 is a great choice,I've had mine since 1978 and killed countless squirrels with it.I just tape a 2 litre bottle over the end and shoot CCI mini mags.It will be quiet enough,of course the more you shoot the louder it gets.If you are set on using sub sonics get a Ruger 77/22,same great reliability and you dont have to worry about it cycling.I use mine to kill pigeons on our roof,I got 98 one day out of a hundred round box.I just use a .223 for everything.One loud bang and by the time everybody looks you will be sitting back on the couch.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

I have shot 2 cyotes so far this year and the Deptarment of Natural Resources have checked them and both tested positive for Rabies. I use a 300 savage with a 9 power scope and had good hits on both but each one traveled at least 50 yards before going down. Be careful they might come after you before going down.
Clint

Clinton Bemrose<br />just South of Lansing Michigan<br />Beekeeping since 1964

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Guns shmunz, get a good leghold trap like that Warrior guy uses. If you let it in the trap long enough the coyote will just starve and you dont have to buy the gun or the shells, plus no loud bang to worry about. No more missing dogs or cats. I guess a person could also buy a used compound bow from the pennysaver classifieds and gut shoot the coyotes and let them bleed out.

We have to do something about these darn coyotes killing our pets and carrying rabies and ransackin our yards. Pretty soon the critters will be stealin our money and takin our jobs !!!!!!

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Clinton,I have a .50 Beowulf and a .450 Bushmaster that will insure that they wont attack or travel 50 yards but I think he was wanting to shoot something lighter to not attract the attention of the locals.My personal feelings are that I want the locals to know that I have artillery and dont mind using it,solves lots of problems. Where I live the guy next door is always out shooting his AK47 or other various firearms in the back yard.Its not unusaul to hear gunfire anytime(except the middle of the night)around here.When its not the locals you can hear the impact of the 105 howitzers at Fort Knox almost anytime even though they hit 10 or 12 miles away.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

I have shot 2 cyotes so far this year and the Deptarment of Natural Resources have checked them and both tested positive for Rabies. I use a 300 savage with a 9 power scope and had good hits on both but each one traveled at least 50 yards before going down. Be careful they might come after you before going down.

Sometimes, it's better not to wake the neighbors.

The longest shot with the .17 HMR so far, was 200+, which is a little outside, what I would call it's effective range. It did the job.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

How loud is the .17? I have never shot one. I do have a nice little Ruger 77 all weather in .22 Hornet but it cracks pretty loud.I believe it would put a pretty serious hurt on a coyote.They show up around my place from time to time but I have 4 large dogs so they stay clear of the 2 or 3 acres that I have invisible fence around.I have a bunch on my farm in Indiana but we havnt hunted them up there yet.Probably start on them this spring.There are also a lot on my sisters farm in Shelbyville Ky.If we see one while deer hunting we will take a shot but we havnt really singled them out yet.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

It's probably about the same as your Hornet. It's basically a .22 magnum, necked down for the .17 bullet. It does make a crack. I have only had to shoot more than once one time. He was trotting broadside about 125 yards. I felt like Chuck Connors in "The Rifleman" out on my deck with the lever action. I'm not sure which shot got him, but the buzzards found him for me.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Okay, truth is I got nothing to say for myself. I've not bought a .22 rifle, and the coyotes have not made an appearance but 1 time since my first post and then it was too brief to shoot anything with a crossbow.

However, some people in my neighborhood, by what method I do not know, killed a coyote and displayed said coyote for public viewing the bed of a truck.

Re: .22 Rifle Suggestions

Perhaps risky beesness is on the right tract with the buzzards..... If you want to stay subsonic and you are close enough, shoot them with the .22 short and let the buzzards find them, they need to eat as well. You will not offend your neighbors and if the pack is thinning out you know that you are being effective. Remember, a sniper who fires only one shot is very hard to locate, so make the first one count.